


Thankful for the Rain

by orphan_account



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Coffee Shops, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Thunderstorms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 10:39:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16038788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Eddie has never liked the rain. That is until he finds himself trapped in a coffee shop during a downpour and catches up with a familiar face. One he never thought he would see again and one that broke Eddie’s heart years before.





	Thankful for the Rain

Eddie pulls open the door to leave just as the storm starts, the flash of lightning and the accompanying crash of thunder making him jump.

As the rain starts to fall, fat droplets that splash against the pavement and splatter on the windows, driven by gusts of wind that have suddenly picked up, he lets go of the handle, letting the door swing shut. He’s not about to step out into that; his car is a ten minute walk away and his coat is in said car. He’ll be soaked by the time he even makes it three steps away from the coffee shop so a ten minute trip isn’t very appealing right now. He’ll just have to wait for a little bit until it eases up.

He does feel a little silly sipping out of his to go cup even though he’s seated at a table but it’s not as if he expected to be stuck here. If he had he would’ve at least brought along a paperback to read instead of just scrolling mindlessly through his phone, refreshing his twitter feed every couple of minutes to read the same tweets over and over. There are a million things that he needs to do today, and chilling in an almost deserted _Starbucks_ is not one of them but the rain isn’t letting up and he doesn’t want to risk getting ill just because he was impatient.

“As I live and breathe!” Someone close to him gasps, and Eddie looks up from his phone to see a man that’s oddly familiar to him stood by his table. “It’s Edward Kaspbrak!”

“Richie?” He’s equally as shocked, his mouth dropping open as he studies the man in front of him. It’s not just any man, either, but his childhood crush and ex-boyfriend. “Oh my god, you’ve changed so much! I thought you were in California?”

“You have too! Can I sit?” He points at the empty chair opposite Eddie, taking it when Eddie nods. “And yeah, I am. Mom and dad moved back to Derry a while ago so I come down to visit every now and then. What about you?”

“I moved back down a while ago too,” Eddie shrugs, his leg bouncing underneath the table. “Ma was ill and I was recently divorced and sleeping on my friend’s sofa so it just seemed like the best thing to do.”

“How is your ma?” Richie looks adorable when he frowns and Eddie has to avert his gaze because he can’t fall in love with Richie all over again. He’ll be back in California in a couple of days or weeks and Eddie will be left behind once again.

“She passed a couple of months back,” there’s a lump in Eddie’s throat as he speaks. It’s not as if he’s particularly upset over it; his life had been a living hell when he lived with her, especially after he’d come back from New York, but he hasn’t talked about it before. “It was a heart attack. She was ill, sure, but not like that so it was kind of sudden…” he trails off, clearing his throat. Richie is still frowning, but it’s softer than and Eddie can see the pity in his eyes. “But it’s kinda nice not to live with her anymore, if I’m honest. She was a bit too much sometimes.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Richie nods. “She hated me.”

“She hated all of my friends,” Eddie sighs. “Even after you, Bill, Beverly and Stan left and it was just me, Mike and Ben, we made some new friends but she even hated those. I think she was just scared of me loving someone else more than her and we were all pretty close, so…”

“That’s pretty shitty,” Richie says, taking a drink. “But I’m sorry she passed,” Eddie gives him a tight lipped smile in thanks. “How was she when you got married bet she didn’t like that?”

“Not really,” Eddie snorts. Her face had been a picture when he’d told her. Ma, I’m getting married to Myra, I proposed this morning. “Well, not at first. Once she met Myra and got to know her a little she was pretty much fine with it. They were very alike in some not so good ways if I’m honest, and she didn’t like us moving to New York at all. I thought she was going to faint when I told her we were getting a divorce, and man, you should have seen her when I met her at Bangor airport to come home. She looked as if she’d won the lottery,” he smiles a little, remembering that. It was a nice memory, even if what came after it wasn’t as great. “Anyway, enough about me, what about you? I watch your show sometimes, you know. Your Voices have improved a lot.”

Richie chuckles at that, his cheeks turning slightly red as if he was embarrassed. “I mean they’re still not that great but I’m still working on them. They’ve definitely come a long way from when we were kids, though, that much I know.”

They fall silent, Eddie staring down at his drink and Richie at his phone that had just buzzed. Eddie wants to bring it up, wants to confront Richie about just leaving him like he did — no sorry, no goodbye, only a quick voicemail to Bev: ‘ _tell Eddie it’s over_ ’. And then radio silence. Eddie wants to tell him about all the times that he’d cried over him, all the sullen lunch times and meetings down at the Barrens where they would just sit and miss him. But he doesn’t know how to bring it up, doesn’t know what to say and when he looks up to see Richie pocketing his phone and shrugging on his jacket he feels a flash of anger because of course he’s just going to leave again. He’s not going to ask for a number or an email address; he’s just going to disappear except for Wednesdays and Fridays at 9PM when his show airs when he’ll appear on Eddie’s TV for an hour before fading to credits and leaving Eddie alone again.

“Why didn’t you call?” The words tumble from Eddie’s mouth before he can stop them, sharp and accusing. Richie freezes, half stood, and looks at Eddie with a surprised expression. “Or- or text or email or _something_? You just disappeared, Richie. You didn’t even tell us where you were going. We had no idea if you were okay, we couldn’t come and visit— you broke my heart, Richie. Made me feel like I was nothing.”

Richie sits back down with a thud, his brows knitted together. He opens and closes his mouth several times before settling on only two words. “I’m sorry.”

“You should be,” and Eddie can’t stop now. His brain is running and his usual filter is gone, all of the hurt and the pain that he’d bottled up over this finally spilling out. “You left us, Richie. Didn’t even have the courtesy to tell us. You dumped me through Bev, do you realise how much that damaged our relationship for a while? I blamed her even though she had nothing to do with it except being the unfortunate messenger.”

There’s more silence before Richie speaks again. “I didn’t want to leave without telling you, Eddie, really,” he says, his voice shaking slightly. “Mom only told me the week before and so I didn’t really have much time to tell anyone and then I kept putting it off and the day came and I panicked. I was scared to try and contact you afterwards because I knew you’d hate me, and you were right to because it was a shitty thing to do. I’m sorry, Eds. I really am.”

“Did you miss me?” Eddie’s voice is shaking too, and he wipes at his eyes that are shining with tears. Overhead, more thunder booms. “I missed you so god damn much, Richie.”

“Every day,” Richie whispers. Then, murmured. “I still miss you, Eddie. I always hoped that you were watching my show. I-I got your number from Mike and there have been so many times that I’ve almost text you but have talked myself out of it. You’re the reason I came in here today; Mike said that you come here every Saturday and so I was sat at the back waiting for you. I’m so thankful for the rain,” he pauses to look out of the window. “But I was prepared to chase after you.”

Eddie’s crying now, hiding his face in his hands. He’s thankful for the rain too, for this opportunity. And this doesn’t fix what Richie did to him, but it’s a start and if Richie really does have his number it means that they can work on it even when Richie leaves.

“I um, I’m thinking of moving back down here actually,” Richie says, reaching across the table to take Eddie’s hands in his own. “And I was wondering if maybe you’d give me a second chance? You don’t have to but, uh —”

“Not right now,” Eddie sniffs. “Not straight away just in case you want to move back. You’re still not excused for the shitty things you did, Richie, and I can’t just forgive you in an afternoon. It’s going to take a lot of work but we can see if maybe in the future we can’t work something out,” he glances out of the window, at the rain that’s finally letting up. “Look, I have to get going. I have things I need to do. Text me later and we’ll see about meeting up soon.”

Richie nods, standing up again. “Can I at least walk you to your car?” he pulls an umbrella out of his bag, handing it to Eddie. “I have to say, though, it’s not like you to forget your coat, Eddie Kaspbrak.”

“Maybe I did it on purpose.” Eddie says with a smirk, as he steps out of the coffee shop, putting up Richie's umbrella before the two of them started to make their way down the street.

Maybe heavy rain isn't too bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> [My tumblr (although there's not much there yet).](https://deadwardkaspbrak.tumblr.com/)


End file.
